S O O L O O. 
361 
particularly applied to those who live in the southern section of 
Borneo. To the north they are called Idaan or Tirun, and those so 
termed are best known to the Sooloos, or the inhabitants of that part 
of the coast of Borneo over which the Sooloos rule. In personal 
appearance, the Dyacks are slender, have higher foreheads than the 
Malays, and are a finer and much better-looking people. Their hair 
is long, straight, and coarse, though it is generally cropped short round 
the head. The females are spoken of as being fair and handsome, and 
many of those who have been made slaves are to be seen among the 
Malays. 
In manners the Dyacks are described as simple and mild, yet they 
are characterized by some of the most uncommon and revolting cus¬ 
toms of barbarians. Their government is very simple; the elders in 
each village for the most part rule; but they are said to have chiefs 
that do not differ from the Malay rajahs. They wear no clothing 
except the maro, and many of them are tattooed, with a variety of 
figures, over their body. They live in houses built of wood, that are 
generally of large size, and frequently contain as many as one hundred 
persons. These houses are usually built on piles, divided into compart¬ 
ments, and have a kind of veranda in front, which serves as a commu¬ 
nication between the several families. The patriarch, or elder, resides 
in the middle. The houses are entered by ladders, and have doors, 
but no windows. The villages are protected by a sort of breastwork. 
Although this people are to be found throughout all Borneo, and 
even within a few miles of the coast, yet they do not occupy any part 
of its shores, which are held by Malays, or Chinese settlers. There 
is no country more likely to interest the world than Borneo. All 
accounts speak of vast ruins of temples and palaces, throughout the 
whole extent of its interior, which the ancestors of the present inha¬ 
bitants could not have constructed. The great resemblance these 
bear to those of China and Cambojia has led to the belief that Borneo 
was formerly peopled by those nations; but all traditions of the origin 
of these edifices have been lost; and so little is now known of the 
northern side of Borneo, that it would be presumption to indulge in 
any surmises of what may have been its state during these dark ages. 
Even the Bugis priests, who are the best-informed persons in the 
country, have no writings or traditions that bear upon the subject; and 
the few scattered legends of Eastern origin, can afford no proof of the 
occurrence of the events they commemorate in any particular locality. 
The accounts of the habits of the Dyacks are discrepant. Some 
give them credit for being very industrious, while others again speak 
of them as indolent. They are certainly cultivators of the soil, and 
vol. v. 2F 46 
